[iaufwg] Registering the FOREIGN extension name

[Mark Calabretta]

On Thu 2006/10/05 21:47:59 -1000, forveill at cfht.hawaii.edu wrote
in a message to: "Mark Calabretta" <mcalabre at atnf.csiro.au>
and copied to: "William Pence" <pence at milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov>,
      "IAU-FWG" <iaufwg at nrao.edu>

>and must not be reused, while that from plain conventions should
>just be avoided as much as reasonable. We don't want one brain-dead
>historical convention defined by one guy in an obscure corner to
>block FITS evolution, if that case ever occurs :-)

You could argue that "once FITS always FITS" means that conventions,
having a kind of semi-legal status, can't formally be expired,
(archived data might linger for centuries, etc.) but in practice it's
hard to imagine the namespace ever becoming so cluttered that it would
be necessary.

Cheers, Mark